I had a nice surprise on the freeway last week where I could shift front to back but not left to right. Luckily 3rd is a very versatile gear. Turns out the bottom of the shift lever that connects to the two cables together came apart. One of the last janky parts left over from the previous owners was this component covered in RTV. I bit the bullet and spent 200 dollars on a new lever to find out my 97 is special and has a smaller ball fitting on the bottom. I modified a few circlips to keep it together... it's not a wonderful solve. Any thoughts on where I can find the linkage component without having to buy a whole transmission with it? New it costs as much as a used transmission as well....
